Here’s an article that starts off with one dark tourism expereince and then starts discussing different examples of dark tourism. 

Apparently there’s an attraction known as Death Railway in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. It’s a bridge built during WWII where “13,000 PoWs, 80,000 Asian labourers and 1,000 Japanese and Korean guards died while working in the most appalling conditions imaginable.”

I have no idea why there would be Korean guards when Korea was occupied by Japan at the time. It seems like there would be a number of Koreans among the “Asian laborers” but I’m not too sure.

Through the years, countless ships have been lost at sea, the Titanic being the most familiar and much later the Andrea Doria.  Yet, there were other lesser known, but even greater disasters that history would like to forget – the Wilhelm Gustloff is one.

The ill-fated ship had the dubious honor of being named after the leader of the Nazi party in Switzerland, who was assassinated by David Frankfurter, a Jewish medical student, in January 1936.  It was officially christened by Gustloff’s widow on May 5, 1937 in a flurry of Fascist cheers, flags, and salutes as Hitler and other party members watched from above.  This was the grandest ship of the Kdf “strength through joy” fleet of luxury cruise liners created for loyal Nazi followers to enjoy.  There was no class division among the passengers; all cabins had a view and were of equal size.

From its maiden voyage on March 24, 1938, to just before WWII, carefree vacationers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland mingled freely with each other and the crew on cruises to the Mediterranean and the North Sea.  Cruise fares were reasonable and within the budget of most of the working class in keeping with Hitler’s false promises of a perfect world.  Free entertainment was provided; daily activities were structured, and Hitler’s propaganda circulated freely among the passengers who seldom went ashore.

Prior to the annexation of Austria by the Nazis, it was also used as a floating voting station for citizens of Austria and Germany, who were then living in England.  They were ferried 3 miles offshore to the ship, many unaware they were casting their vote in approval.  Other than transporting German troops from Spain after Franco’s victory in 1939, the Gustloff remained a pleasure ship carrying over 65,000 passengers on at least 50 different excursions.  The pleasure ended, however, with the final cruise in August 1939, when she was converted to a hospital ship in September 1939.  Serving a less humanitarian purpose during the war, it was camouflaged to house U-boat sailors in training.

At the end of WWII, on January 30, 1945, the Gustloff was put into service this time as a part of Operation Hannibal, a massive wartime relief effort.  Over 10,000 refugees, navy personnel, and the wounded, including an estimated 4,000 women and children, sought refuge on the ship from the advancing Soviet Red Army.  Although the Operation itself evacuated over two million people, the most successful wartime evacuation in history, the ones who made it to the Danzig port and the Wilhelm Gustloff were not so lucky.  Leaving many behind, the ship left port without ceremony heading for Kiel on the mainland of Germany.  Although thousands had escaped the atrocities of the Russian troops, none could know what lay ahead.

The ship and its crew were ill prepared for the mass of people that overflowed the decks and cabins below.  As the Gustloff made its way through sleet and snow, there was little protection from the weather or the enemy.  The ship was virtually alone on the Baltic Sea with only one small escort boat.  However, the U-boat detection equipment on the Lowe had frozen, and the boat was relying primarily on lookouts.  While anti-aircraft guns and the few lifeboats also remained frozen and inoperable on the deck of the Gustloff, the people suffered terribly in the packed quarters of a ship built to accommodate about 1800 passengers.

Some 9 hours later, disaster struck, as three torpedoes labeled For Leningrad, the Soviet people, and the Motherland were fired from an undetected Russian submarine.  After a direct hit on the ship‘s bow, the forward part of the ship was sealed off, and many of the crew were then unable to get to the lifeboats or carry out emergency procedures.  The lavish swimming pool amidships was now filled with floating bodies, broken metal, and flying tile.  After the 3rd and final torpedo destroyed the engine room, the Wilhelm Gustloff lost all power and communications.  The scene was one of total chaos, resembling the panic of the Titanic on a much larger scale.  Only a very few were rescued, as over 9,000 lives were lost in the sinking of the Gustloff, by far the greatest number in a single disaster at sea.  A journey that promised safety had ended in indescribable tragedy.

A second refugee ship, the General Steuben, was also hit on the same mission carried out by the Russian submarine commander Marinesko and his crew, raising the total lives lost to over 10,000.  Ironically, Marinesko was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union by Gorbachev in 1990, officially giving him credit for supposedly destroying German armed forces, but neglecting to mention the loss of innocent refugees and their families.

Unlike the Titanic, the shipwreck’s position in relatively shallow water was accurately recorded, so there is little mystery involved.  The Polish government retains control over this designated area, but there are few visitors or memorials to such a burial site.  A team of Polish divers, headed by Mike Boring, explored the shipwreck in May 2003 on a salvage expedition.  No evidence was found of a so-called Amber Room, or a secret treasure worth over $350 million stolen during the war years.  It is possible that some, if not all, the loot was recovered by the Russians soon after their deadly mission was accomplished.

(Notes:  The ship’s purser, Heinz Schon, one of the few survivors, has written numerous books and is considered the leading expert as manager of the Gustloff archives in Germany.)

(David Frankfurter was later pardoned, released from exile, and managed to live out the rest of his life in Israel.)

(The wreck is a war memorial and her location is disguised by Polish navigational charts that register her only as Obstacle No 73 - 180 feet deep in the Baltic. However, she is easy to find and most of the diving clubs between Gdansk and Kolobrzeg offer trips to the wreck.)(In Germany, the Wilhelm Gustloff has become a focus for war remembrance. Germans are lobbying to build a museum or a shrine on the Polish coast to mark the 60th anniversary of the disaster, on January 30.)
Sharon Slayton

Here’s an article describing some ghost tourism in Scotland. This is actually the 5th page of a mini-series but it talks about a haunted room in Drovers Inn (in Inverarnan). You can also download a podcast of an interview with the author from this page.

You can find more on ghost hunting vacations here and here.

This blog entry has an interesting story and some chilling pictures of two grief tourism related sites in Cambodia, “Wat Mai” the Killing Field Memorial and the Aki Ra Landmine Museum. He visited the Killing Fields after seeing Angkor Watt, so tourists can work this into their Cambodian vacation plan. The official Cambodian tourism site should help you with those travel itineraries.

Bill Morse is someone who is very involved in Cambodian tourism and organizes visits to the Aki Ra Landmine Museum as part of his Mekong River Cruise. He has also been involved in removing landmines in Cambodia (some vacation).

Vaughan Street Jail or Jailhouse is not usually open to the public, but when it is open it is called dark tourism.

Hundreds got a rare glimpse of the 126-year-old concrete fortress Saturday. It was one of 52 buildings involved in the annual Doors Open Winnipeg weekend to show off the insides of historic structures normally closed to the public.

Tourists got to speak with a former hangman and hear stories about botched executions with heads ripped off and how 5-year-old children were incarcerated. Sounds pretty dark to me.

It seems like Vaughan Street Jail is only open for tourism during Doors Open Winnipeg, an annual event celebrating Winnipeg’s history.

Arlington National Cemetery is a good example of a popular tourist attraction that can be called grief tourism. It’s certainly a place where people go to feel grief, from the Tomb of the Unknowns to diffrent monuments and memorials to actual funeral ceremonies.

I’d like to share a few posts from a football message board regarding Memorial Day (these posts were made on an around the US Memorial Day Holiday in 2007) and burials in Arlington National Cemetery:

1. I  recently layed my father to rest in Arlinton. I have to say It was the first and I can only hope the last military funeral I have ever been to. But what a true honor it was to be there and experience such a thing. They truly do not forget a man’s service for his country and make every effort to make the families comfortable.

It was quit sobering to hear taps and the 21 gun salute as many times as we did during our service throughout the grounds.

I have to admit prior to this weekend memorial day was a day for remembrance for me but it was also a extra day off from work and grill out and what not. But now its a lot more than that not just becauce of my dad but all of the men and women who we have all lost.

2. Arlington is a very special place, and your Dad now rests in his rightful place among the other heroes.

3. Military burials are extremely emotional. Never experienced a burial at Arlington but my father & Grandfather were both buried at Calverton National Cemetery (as I will be eventually) and the playing of Taps & the presentation of the Flag to the family (my mother in both cases) were the toughest things to handle. Besides being present when both of them passed away those were by far the most emotional situations I ever had to deal with.

4. As a former soldier and member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry “The Old Guard” based at Ft. Myer, Arlington, VA … some of my duties included marching as part of a military escort/marching platoon (dress blues with almost razor-sharp creases, highly polished brass, etc.) for military burials “with honors” at Arlington National Cemetary.

After going through several burials it became pretty routine (almost as if it were like you had iced water running through your veins … basically you were totally focused on performing all of your rifle drill and ceremonial movements with near perfection). Besides, as part of the honor guard you cannot move, glance around, or hardly breathe let alone show/display any emotions.

It was an interesting, honorable, and memorable experience for me to have been a member of the Army’s most prestigious and elite ceremonial unit.

I wish all of the other veterans and active service members alike a very happy and safe Memorial Day!!! May those who served and paid with their lives while protecting the sovereignty and national interests of this great, great country … never be forgotten!!!

5. My grandfather was a SGT in the Air Force during WWII and wow what a service they put on for him in Aug of 2004. I honestly felt like my grandfather was an ex president of the US the way my grandfather and our family were treated during the ceremony. The gun salute and all. It was truly breath taking. Glad to hear your father received the same treatment.

This is an interesting story (with photos) of a tour on June 15, 2000. The site toured was Hart Island and the tour was provided by the New York Correction History Society.

Hart Island is said to be a ghost town with an abandoned church, asylum, and military base. The military base has Nike missile silos left over from the late 50’s and the cold war. These missiles were supposed to shoot Soviet ICBMs out of the sky before they landed in New York City.

But it’s not the abandoned military base that really qualifies Hart Island as a grief tourist destination. That distinction belongs to Potter’s Field.

Potter’s Field on Hart Island has been the burial place for New York’s unclaimed dead bodies since 1869. There are now over 700,000 bodies on Hart Island. This cemetery is unlike more famous and touristy cemeteries:

There are no ceremonies for the dead here on Hart Island.  Inmates from Riker’s Island are assigned burial detail and are ferried over to do the work.  Coffins are stacked beneath the ground–3 high, 10 across, 5 rows deep, between each of the white grave markers–crowding 150 adult bodies into each marked square.  Infant’s coffins are stacked in trenches and buried.

Here’s an interesting blog entry on ghost hunting in Chicago. You often see these kinds of articles on sites dedicated to ghost hunting, but this seems to be a site for fairly mainstream sports tourists like people who want to see a baseball game at Wrigley Field or go to a museum.

Then again, we see grief tourism so often. For example, The Freedom Museum in Chicago, a very mainstream tourism spot “contains stone pieces of historical significance from the Great Wall of China, the Alamo, the White House, the World Trade Center, and the Berlin Wall.”

Chicago also has the Abraham Lincoln Civil War tour which includes Stephen Douglas’ tomb and memorial along with other significant sites.

Thanatourism is a difficult word to define because it is rarely used. So when we do use it, what exactly do we mean? 

The most accepted scholar is probably A.V. Seaton. In his 1996 article, From Thanatopsis to Thanatourism: Guided by the Dark, Seaton argues that thanatourism is dependent on the traveller’s frame of mind. The thanatourist is “motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death.”

Seaton claims that there are various degrees of thanatourism:

1. Travel to watch death (public hangings or executions)

2. Travel to sites after death has occurred (Auschwitz)

3. Travel to internment sites and memorials (graves and monuments)

4. Travel to re–enactments (Civil War re–enactors) 

5. Travel to synthetic sites at which evidence of the dead has been assembled (museums)

This leaves quite a bit of overlap and makes thanatourism seem like a common word that could encompass holocaust tourism, cemetery tourism, a visit to Strawberry Fields, or just about any type of grief tourism.

However, on the rare occasions when the word thanatourism is used, it often refers to very specific types of tourism (primarily type 1 - watching death - when the traveller most clearly wants to encounter actual death). This must include burials, such as Tibet’s famous sky burials. I have not heard thanatourism used to refer to celebrity burials, but I suppose it could be used for tourists who visited Reagan’s wake / funeral in Washington D.C.

The fact is we can not rely on scholars to define words for us. We have to see how the words are used in real life by normal people. This is difficult with uncommon words, but I think we can see that dark tourism and grief tourism are the more general terms that refer to many sites associated with death and disaster. Thanatourism is sometimes used for sites associated with violent death, particularly when travellers actually want to see a death or burial.

This article looks at dark tourism and explores (in a very shallow way) the popularity of dark tourism. Tourist sites mentioned include Ground Zero in New York (here there’s an interesting comment from a tourist who refused to leave the tour bus because he “felt it was a bit sick”), Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the Necropolis in Glasgow, the graves of Soham murder victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the killing fields of Choeung Ek and interrogation centre Tuol Sleng in Cambodia, plus Lockerbie and Dunblane in Scotland.

We get a quote from Professor John Lennon, of Glasgow Caledonian University:

“People want to go and be tourists in war zones while wars are happening. They seem to have an appetite to get very close while the blood is still dripping. There is no limit to the appetite for this stuff and demand is driving it faster and faster.

“We are always fascinated by the dark side of human nature and the most evil things people can do.”

I find this quote interesting for several reasons. First I think Lennon is exaggerating when he says there’s no limit to our appetite for visiting war zones. Ask yourself how many of your friends would like to visit a war zone and get close enough to see dripping blood. I know that experiencing a war is not on my shortlist of vacation ideas.

So I’m going to disagree with Lennon on his first point. There most certainly is a limit to our appetite for visiting war zones.

The Lennon says something about being fascinated by the dark side of human nature etc. I don’t think you have to be a scholar or a professor to know that. The reason I find this obvious comment interesting is because of what it implies about the definition of dark tourism. It implies that dark tourism is centered around the evil things that people do. This might not include acts of nature such as Hurricane Katrina or the Tsunami. As I’ve said before, the definitions of words like grief tourism and dark tourism are still being written so this interpretation will only be meaningful if other people also refer to things people do when they refer to dark tourism. We shall see.